


The Loss Of The Will To Fight

by Fullmetal450



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF, X-Ray & Vav (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Michael Jones/Mogar in the X-Ray and Vav Universe, Mild Angst, X-Ray and Vav AU, X-Ray and Vav Break Up, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-17
Updated: 2015-02-17
Packaged: 2018-03-13 07:51:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3373598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fullmetal450/pseuds/Fullmetal450
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If someone had told Michael that he'd be comforting a sobbing superhero who lived in his building, he wouldn't have believed them. And yet, here he is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Loss Of The Will To Fight

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Hero work is hard.](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/98882) by sarahsarhhs. 



He's never seen him like this. In all the time that he's lived upstairs from Gavin, he's never seen him look so pathetic and downtrodden.

Michael tries to ignore it at first, when the British man starts to visibly lilt. It's not his business. Gavin has friends, and they're nice and really loud sometimes, but so is Michael. For fuck's sake, he only knows his name because sometimes the glasses guy (Ray) screams out a litany of, "Gavin, nooooo!"

So he ignores the less swooshy hair, the slump to his shoulders, and the way Gavin doesn't leave his apartment for long periods of time. He pushes away his worry for this almost stranger, and he pays his rent and he does his work and he lives his life as completely normally as he can in a city where they have real superheroes and supervillains and men in spandex in green and darker green, and red, white, blue combos.

He ignores it as the green and darker green guy stops showing up and the murder count for their city rises and everyone is whispering about an angry(?) king.

He ignores it as their normal picturesque city turns into a sprawling mess that is on the list of one hundred worst cities in the United States to raise a family.

But he can't ignore it anymore when he looks out of his door and sees the red, white, blue spandex combo guy sitting on the stairs of his apartment building.

He can't ignore it when he looks up the guy, searching heroes and their city's name, and he finds out he's Vav and he's an amateur hero and he sees that he's the only one trying to fight back nowadays.

He can't ignore it when Vav taps some bracelets on his wrists and he suddenly looks like Gavin and he's crying. He's bleeding a bit, too, from a cut on his right cheek and a bruise under his right eye. He looks too small and too scared to be the man who tripped on the stairs once because he heard Joel on the fifth floor had a broken fridge and Popsicles that he was giving away for free.

So Michael creeps out of his apartment and he shuts the door gently and makes sure to step on the creaky step, even if it makes Gavin/Vav flinch and start wiping at his eyes.

"You know, I'm pretty sure superheroes wear masks, dickhead."

Gavin laughs politely, shrugging and gripping his cape slightly. "Hil--our tech friend...made these...almost masks. Doesn't feel like you're wearing one, and no one can videotape you, and a bunch of other cool stuff..." He trails off with a pitiful sniffle, fiddling with the bracelets and finally pulling them off. "Secret identities used to be important."

"Obviously not anymore, since you're showing off your identity to some asshole reporter," Michael says, tapping the notepad in his shirt pocket. "And I could be taking cameras like in that movie with the girl with the pig nose."

Gavin laughs a little more openly, running a hand through his hair and fucking it up more pitifully. "Penelope? Didn't think you were one for romantic movies about loving yourself."

He can only shake his head at the softly mocking lilt in Gavin's voice, stepping down the stairs and passing him. "You're the one who knew the movie's name." He makes his way to his mailbox, flicking it open and peering through the letters--some from the few friends he has and most relating to work. "And loving myself doesn't mean I won't fuck you over."

He'd normally be an even worse dick to someone who does what Gavin does. Half the time, any fighting that happens is more destructive to the city than the original wrong doing. But Gavin was bubbly and happy for a long time, annoyingly so, even when he was working on trying to be some weak superhero. And Michael's not that kind of news, he's gaming and electronics and all the 'puff pieces' that so called real journalists won't do, and he leaves it. But it leaves him out of the loop.

So he isn't _exactly_ sure what the fuck Gavin's talking about when he murmurs a soft, "He's never coming back."

* * *

 

 

Ray spent half of the time away from the group, and the other half with them and checking his phone, or sleeping.

Dating didn't suit his friend. At least not this kind.

Because Ray was distracted and he was so in love and it was not a good look on him. He slept fitfully when he bothered with it, and he was up at all hours, wanting to spend all his time at Ryan's or out heroing or working. Ray never went online anymore and Hilda had to screen his xbox live messages because all his friends hadn't heard from him and they were worried, but no one near him is better off. Ray spoke to no one about their relationship, and his eyes stayed filled with hearts and he was everywhere, and stretched far too thin.

Ryan may be crazy, but he was not a complete monster to someone he loves. So he made Ray choose, saying it was only for his health.

Gavin heard about how crazy Ryan was, how this was utter bullshit, how it wasn't fair, to Ray or to Gavin and Hilda or to the city. It all drove down to one thing, though.

Suddenly X-Ray and Vav was just Vav, and Ryan Heywood came out as gay and he had a boyfriend and they were in love and plastered all over every magazine or gossip/news channel.

He and Ray don't talk much for six months.

And then suddenly Ryan and Ray were no longer Ryan and Ray, and the public is still confused because they were so in love and so ready to take on any storm. But Gavin opened the door his apartment one day, and Ray was there, smiling and holding a box of pizza.

"I couldn't just be a helpless civilian anymore."

But Gavin could see the heartbreak in his eyes, knew it was Ray's first, and he didn't hide it well. So despite the begging to rejoin, to be X-Ray and Vav again, he had to say no. Because fighting alone for six months taught him something. Fighting angry and upset only leads to failure, and the city has seen enough of that already. So he said no.

Ray hated him. Probably still does.

He was screaming and he was mad and he didn't get it, because of course he didn't. He was gone a long time and expected the world to stop for him. But Gavin's had watched streets like they were truly his, and his entire life became based on their safety. So he couldn't watch their city become the battleground of exes.

He lost his best friend and Ray stormed off to another city and it hurts so much. It added to the hurt when Hilda got her dream and she took a new job and now she's across the world. But he is still Vav and he still has to fight, so he does.

Why does it have to be so hard?

* * *

 

By the end of his story, Gavin is sobbing and he sounds so broken. This is a man who came into this with friends and a support system, and now he's on his own and that's the most fucked up thing. No one in the city is fighting with him, so basically it's this spindly guy against all the baddies.

He pulls a pack of tissues out of his pocket and offers them to Gavin, who raises an eyebrow. "I'm a journalist. Some people tell stories that move them. Have to be ready."

It pulls a soft, raspy laugh from Gavin, the first one in a while. "Thank you..." He wipes his tears, blows his nose, and sighs almost pitifully.

"I'm so tired, Michael."

And that statement pulls at him, long after Gavin gives him a gentle handshake and makes his way back to his apartment. Just the figure of those slumped shoulders and tired walk and the way Gavin's apartment door quietly clicks shut, such a counterpoint to the slamming that Michael heard from there so many months ago.

He decides something.

He'll be damned before he just fucking sits by and watches this city fuck over people who don't deserve it. He can't ignore it anymore, no matter what he promised himself. This is complete and utter _bullshit_ , and the next day, when he's not ignoring, every single thing he sees makes him even angrier. He showed up not even six months ago and now this place is like a piece of hell on earth. Fuck. That. He makes that decision, to try his hand at taking the Mad King down, to fix the streets no matter what so that Gavin isn't alone, and he's going to sick to it until his head has a bigger price tag on it than it had in New York.

Mogar's back in business, bitches.


End file.
